If you were to meet BK Boreyko while standing in line waiting for ice cream, what you would find is a jolly, happy, and very goofy dad of 6 kids that that has a whole bag of stories, laughs and lessons that he can’t wait to share…
What you would not expect is that 3 years ago today BK’s company Vemma Nutrition was taken control of by the FTC as an alleged Pyramid scheme.
The story was churned into a media frenzy and was picked up by eighty-nine hundred media outlets around the world and even at one point became the #1 trending topic on both Facebook and Twitter.
Now, if that alone doesn’t interest you enough to keep listening, I’ll add some background context to shed some light on just how big of a deal this actually was.
What even is “Multi-level marketing.”
Vemma is what is known today as a Multi-Level Marketing company or (MLM) in short. If you ever heard of companies such as Amway, Avon, Herbalife, ACN, Mary K, Advocare, Legal shield, Melaleuca, Juice Plus, Isogenix, DoTerra, Tupperware, Nuskin, Primerica, World Ventures, Ambit energy, Beach Body, It works, Nuskin, Market America, Nerium, Younique, Arbonne then you have discovered network marketing in one way shape or form, a 180+ Billion dollar industry and growing.
The DSA or (Direct Selling Association) defines MLM on their website in the following “Direct selling is a business model that offers entrepreneurial opportunities to individuals as independent contractors to market and/or sell products and services, typically outside of a fixed retail establishment, through one-to-one selling, in-home product demonstrations or online.
Where Compensation is ultimately based on sales and may be earned based on personal sales and/or the sales of others in their sales organizations.”
The industry’s GIGANTIC and has sustained an overall bad rep amongst the general population, largely because of its history of overpromising and under delivering, and of course that are in fact bad apples. And the big question of this podcast is was Vemma one of them?
